Priority application nos. 4-267144 and 4-267146, filed in Japan on Oct. 6, 1992, are incorporated hereinto by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a T-shaped or branched hose connector including a flange installing the branched hose connector as desired. Furthermore, it relates to a branched hose connector including a valve which is adapted to purge a fluid.
2. Description of Related Art
An engine coolant passage of an automobile is provided with a water vent valve in order to purge coolant from the passage. Conventionally, the water vent valve is usually disposed under the radiator. However, when the radiator and the engine are separated by a considerable distance, it is necessary to provide a coolant circulating circuit with an extra water vent valve on the engine side. In addition, branched hoses are widely used because the engine operation has come to be controlled complexly.
A conventional branched hose connector has a branched metallic pipe with metallic secondary pipes extending or branching therefrom which are inserted into and fixed to hoses with clips, or the like. When the conventional branched hose connector is installed in an automobile body, it is preferable to mount the branched hose connector to the automobile body by the metallic branched pipe because the position of each of the secondary pipes can be fixed simultaneously by mounting the branched metallic pipe. For this purpose, a flange is formed so as to project outwardly from the branched metallic pipe to provide a point for mounting.
There are drawbacks associated with the above-described conventional branched hose connector. First, the branched metallic pipe is relatively heavy. Further, it is disadvantageous in view of manufacturing costs because the man-hour requirement for manufacturing the branched metallic pipe increases sharply. Furthermore, it cannot be manufactured or installed efficiently because it requires additional clips made of metal, or the like, to fix the hoses to the secondary pipes. Accordingly it increases the number of component parts.
As described above, the hoses are usually fixed to the secondary pipes of the branched metallic pipe with metallic clips or the like. In addition, an associated water vent valve includes a metallic body and a metallic water vent valve. Weight and manufacturing complexity are an issue with these components as well.
Hence, attempts have been made to form the branched metallic pipe as well as the metallic water vent valve from resin or similarly lightweight material in order to satisfy the weight reduction requirement, and in order to integrate them as an assembly and also to integrate them as an assembly to improve assembly efficiency and the configurational accuracy of the assembly. Matte et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,775) discloses one type of connecting device which is made from resinous materials.
In the conventional branched hose connector, the water vent valve and the body are usually assembled by screwing via threads. A water vent hole is closed by tightening the water vent valve, and it is opened by loosening the water vent valve, thereby allowing the coolant to be purged.
However, even when the water vent valve is tightened, there is a fear that the water vent valve might be loosened by vibrations or the like, resulting in coolant leakage. Accordingly, the water vent valve in the conventional branched hose connector must be firmly tightened. However, if the water vent valve is made from resin, for example, and it is tightened more than necessary, the threads of the water vent valve and the body may be damaged. Thus, the water vent valve must be tightened with a predetermined torque, but no more. However, it is difficult to accurately tighten the water vent valve with such a predetermined torque by a manual operation alone.